Twenty-One Poems for AP Literature and Composition

The selections within this listing represent frequently taught poets and poems in AP English Literature and Composition. 

For each of the twenty-one poems or poetic forms for AP Literature and Composition, students and teachers will find a link to the poem and multimedia resources. These include EDSITEment lessons as well as EDSITEment-reviewed websites that discuss the poem, the poet, and its context. Media incorporated in these resources include audio clips and video as well as primary source documents and photographs, along with other useful tools such as timelines. They offer both the content and skills needed to support student success in AP English Literature and Composition.

1.  Matthew Arnold: “Dover Beach”

• The Poem
• About this Poet from the Poetry Foundation
• Arnold’s “Dover Beach”: A Commentary from Victorian Web
• Dover Beach from Representative Poetry Online

2.  Elizabeth Bishop: “In the Waiting Room”

• The Poem 
• Elizabeth Bishop from Voices and Visions
• On “In the Waiting Room” from Modern American Poetry

3.  Gwendolyn Brooks: “We Real Cool”

• The Poem
• Tyehimba Jess on "We Real Cool" from the American Academy Poets
• The Impact of a Poem's Line Breaks: Enjambment and Gwendolyn Brooks' "We Real Cool"
• On “We Real Cool” from Modern American Poetry

The above video is an animation of what the creators imagine inspired Gwendolyn Brooks to write "We Real Cool."

4.  Robert Browning: “My Last Duchess”

• The Poem
• Browning's "My Last Duchess" and Dramatic Monologue
• My Last Duchess audio clip from the American Academy of Poets
• “My Last Duchess” from Representative Poetry Online

5.  Emily Dickinson: “Safe in their Alabaster Chambers” (124)

• The Poem
• Emily Dickinson from Voices and Visions
• “Safe in their Alabaster Chambers” (216) audio clip from the American Academy of Poets
• Letters from Emily Dickinson: “Will you be my preceptor?”  
• Lesson 2: Responding to Emily Dickinson: Poetic Analysis

6.  John Donne: “A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning”

• The Poem
• "A Valediction: Forbidden Mourning" audio clip from the Poetry Foundation
• A Brief Guide to Metaphysical Poets from the American Academy of Poets
• “A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning” from Representative Poetry Online

7.  T.S. Eliot: “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock”

• The Poem (with audio option)
• Introduction to Modernist Poetry: Lesson 3: Navigating Modernism with J. Alfred Prufrock
• “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock” from Representative Poetry Online
• T. S. Eliot from Voices and Visions

8.  Carolyn Forché: “The Colonel”

• The Poem (with audio option)
• Carolyn Forché from Modern American Poetry

9.  Robert Frost: “Mending Wall”

• The Poem
• On “Mending Wall” from Modern American Poetry
• Robert Frost's "Mending Wall": A Marriage of Poetic Form and Content
• Robert Frost from Voices and Visions

10.  Robert Hayden: “Those Winter Sundays”

• The Poem (with audio option)
• Close Reading Notes for “Those Winter Sundays” from ReadWriteThink

11.  Langston Hughes: “Let America Be America Again”

• The Poem
• On “Let America be American Again” from Modern American Poetry
• Langston Hughes from Voices and Visions
• EDSITEment's Teacher's Guide on Langston Hughes 
• Walt Whitman to Langston Hughes: Poems for a Democracy

12.  John Keats: “Ode on a Grecian Urn”

• The Poem (with audio option)
• Ekphrasis: Poetry Confronting Art from the American Academy of Poets
• “Ode on a Grecian Urn” from Romantic Circles

13.  Andrew Marvell: “To His Coy Mistress”

• The Poem
• About this Poem from the Poetry Foundation
• “To His Coy Mistress” from Representative Poetry Online

14.  Wilfred Owen: “Dulce et Decorum Est”

• The Poem (with audio option)
• Poetry of The Great War: “From Darkness to Light”?
• Introduction to Modernist Poetry.  Lesson 1: Understanding the Context of Modernist Poetry

15.  John Crowe Ransom: “Bells for John Whiteside’s Daughter”

• The Poem
• About this Poem from the Poetry Foundation
• A Brief Guide to the Fugitives from the Cummings Institute
• John Crowe Ransom from Modern American Poetry

16. William Shakespeare: Sonnets

• Shakespeare’s Sonnets from the Folger Shakespeare Library
• Listening to Poetry: Sounds of a Sonnet
• Poetic Form: Sonnet from American Academy of Poets
• A Teacher's Guide for Shakespeare
• William Shakespeare from the Poetry Foundation

17. Percy Bysshe Shelley: “Ozymandias”

• The Poem
• Poem Guide from the Poetry Foundation
• Percy Bysshe Shelley from Victorian Web
• “Ozymandias” from Representative Poetry Online

18.  Wallace Stevens: “Sunday Morning”

• The Poem
• On “Sunday Morning” from Modern American Poetry
• Introduction to Modernist Poetry.  Lesson 2: Thirteen Ways of Reading a Modernist Poem
• “Sunday Morning” from Representative Poetry Online

19.  Dylan Thomas: “Do not go gentle into that good night”

• The Poem (with audio option)
• About this Poet from the Poetry Foundation
• Death in Poetry: A.E. Housman's "To an Athlete Dying Young" and Dylan Thomas' "Do not go gentle into that good night"

20. William Carlos Williams: “Danse Russe”

• The Poem
• Seeing Sense in Photographs and Poems
• William Carlos Williams from Voices and Visions

21. William Butler Yeats: “The Second Coming”

• The Poem (with audio option)
• William Butler Yeats from Poetry Foundation
• Yeats: the Life and Works of William Butler Yeats (online interactive from The National Library of Ireland)